Program helps students with disabilities get textbooks

By Laura Diamond

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

When Kevin Roberts needs a textbook he goes to his college's disabled student services office for help. The office secures digital versions of the text so that Roberts, who is blind and wears hearing aids in both ears, can use a computer program that reads the material to him.

It used to take colleges up to a month to get an alternative text delivered to students. But a new national partnership involving a Georgia group makes it possible for students to get the material in about three or four days.

"When I was in high school I didn't have access to anything like this," said Roberts, a student at Columbus Technical College. "Now I can work on my computer and study just like any other student."

More than 650 college across the country use the AccessText Network, a new online database aimed at making it easier for students who are blind, dyslexic or have other print-related disabilities to get specialized textbooks.

Federal law requires colleges to give students with disabilities equal access to course materials, but getting copies that accommodate students' needs is challenging, said Christopher Lee, director of the Alternative Media Access Center, a state-wide  initiative started by the University System of Georgia to provide technology and alternative texts to students with disabilities. The center is a partner in the new network with the Association of American Publishers.

Typically, each college must track down the publisher of each textbook one of its students with disabilities needs. Then the college has to ask for an electronic file, if it exists. Then it has to be converted to a format students can use. The process can take up to a month, Lee said.

In the meantime students don't have their texts and can't complete assignments, said Sarah Rogers, who is dyslexic and a senior at Toccoa Falls College.

The new network streamlines the process by serving as a go-between for colleges and publishers, said Bruce Hildebrand, executive director for higher education at the publishers' association.  The network cuts down on the paperwork required to protect copyrights and makes it possible for colleges to share the time and resources it takes to convert the textbook into files for students, he said.

Publishing companies paid about $1 million total to develop the network, Hildebrand said. The program is currently free but organizers said they will charge colleges an annual fee starting in July ranging from $375 to $500, depending on the institution's size.

Rogers, an English major, said the process makes it possible for her to read assigned books and participate in class discussions.

"You don't want to have to go to a professor and ask for any accommodations," she said. "I don't want any labels or anything special. I just want to do my work."